Seeing Through the Roots

Synopsis
Under the careful eye of the gods, the party progresses in the Tree of Knowledge. In this journey, the members of the party travel through the different ages and discover the origins of the 7 weapons. On the sidelines, the group members are all taken in small illusion bubbles. In these, they are forced to face their own demons, under the judging eye of the numerous bystanders.

Knowledge comes to a price and it is soon discovered that the curse of tongues shall now be Eiluvial's.

Seeing Through the Roots
In the distance, the low whispers of two individuals can be heard. Standing in a corner to be able to observe and judge the entire progression of the group of mortals, Magret and Fizzban seem to not agree at all on the odds of survival of the party. On one hand, Magret, tries to explain that the group has no chance of survival, that the immaturity of the individuals and their lack of experience will cause their doom. On the other hand, Fizzban, seems rather optimistic, explaining that the party is one of exception and that judging before seeing is all but wise.

After taking a few steps through the door, the party stops its progression to take a look at the weird room in which everyone has walked. The area is completely quiet, no noise can be heard from any direction, and no torches are visible on the walls. However, this absence of light sources does not seem to impact the environment for all the members of the party soon find themselves able to see quite well. At this moment, the party realizes in which place they have stepped. On their right stands a long hallway leading to complete darkness, while another hallway, leading to a brighter area, stands on their right.

"So-- which way should we go?" asks Eiluvial, hesitantly.

"Eh. I'd go right," replied Katar carelessly.

With a quick exchange of glances, the group soon agrees that the better option is to head of the area accounting for light. And so, with Katar leading the way, the party heads for the right corridor and starts marching. As the group begins its march towards the light source, Kylie notices that her helmet has been returned to her and so, that at some point, Sachiel has left her side to go on celestial-knows-what business. Not really minding the absence of her companion, the paladin makes no mention of this discovery to the other group members who do not seem to be getting any closer to the light source.

As the group walks passed another pillar, Cherryl notices a small man, starring at the party. With a skin of a solid gold color and wearer of white, red and black cloaks, the apparent magic user appears slightly otherworldly to the Halfling girl, who stops walking to observe him more carefully. To the bard's surprise, she soon realizes that the pupils of the man are shaped like an hour glass. "You're not going to get anywhere by walking that way," he states calmly.

"How come?" replies the small girl. At this point, the interaction has already caught the attention of the entire crew and everyone is starring at the old man; hoping for development on the current situation.

"You walk in the palace of the gods. THOM I DON'T KNOW WHAT HE SAID AFTER ABOUT TIME AND MEMORIAL" Unable to finish his sentence, the man soon started coughing blood; making the party worry and exchange nervous glances. After taking back his breath, the man walks up to the group and the world completely shifts.

---

We’re hiding behind a pillar in a room with a red light. 4 peeps around the light. Hammer hand fire guy, behind him is a non-describable man. Grey robe. Left, woman in 20s, pale skin, dark hair. Black plate with sword. Right, man taller, platinum hair. Silver platemale. (Texas and Paladine are watching the guy)

Reork, god of the dwarfs. But rn he is tall. The man in robes hushes us. Spear is pulled out of the flames “It is done, the world has been made.” The gods sigh in relief.

Fight fight fight. Man who’s 16 appears next to Rekoernerk he uses a rainbow fireball and approaches Texas. An orgre is formed.

They’re taking scoops of fire and creating races.

Fade

Eiluvial: Big scene in snow, she follows steps in blood and snow. Finds Aetherius. Shyn stabs him, she pounces and kills her. Shin See? She seeks revenge (???) She hesitates to kill someone who attacks her, but does not hesitate to kill one of the persons she used to travel with. Yeah, but in the end, she found her way.

Back to group. Meeting of the gods. Texas and Paladine are arguing. A mortal walks in (probably the idiot of the reconin), and talks straight to Paladine. He claims that he has more rights than anyone else to be a god. “I will take what is my right.” Paladine sighs and turns to his siblings. “Texas, sister, what do you suggest?” She smiles. “And so the reconin happened”

Kylie: Appears on a beach, washed up shore. She notices Shimmer in the distance. “What happened to the others? (Kaspar and cie.)” “I have no idea, I don’t even know how I got here,” replies Kylie. “What is this place, where is this?” They are on the dragonisland. Shimmer explains a bit about the place and then leads her down a path. Shimmer is unsure as to what happened. “When did we first meet?” he asks. “If my memory serves correctly, it was in the hundred cities..?” “So you’re not a doupleganger.” “No.” Shimmer explains that he’s here to show her the metallic dragons that have been asleep for ages.

Afraid of talking

Kylie: àre you okay``

Shimer goes t closest building, bronze dragon; leads her down at an angle leads to huge cave. Hundreds of DWAAAAGOOOOONNNNNSSSSSS!!!!! All sizes, but all bronze

`where are you eading meÉ``

`Were supposed to wake them!``

Ànd dieÉ`

`Tjust awake them, nothing else`

`But they are dragons, and im only a half elf

She is othertaken by sleep

“See even your champion can’t undo what I’ve done to the dragons.” “That is not yet to happen, sister, it will happen in due time”

Fade

Everyone is in a savanah. We put cherryl on the wolf. There’s a pillar of white, rising in the horizon.

We eventually get to a road and start to follow it.

We meet a primal-dragon and 3 guards on the road. The guards are fighting the primal off. They don’t have proper armor. 3 other guards are dead. Lightning dragon. It a cloud dragon. After swarm of fangs and failed glitterdust, the primal  bites the head off of a guard. Fight fight fight, Eiluvial kills it.

Mama dragon comes in. Skull makes her drop. (50 damage) Dragon attacks us

Teleported away. The guy is there and caugh. “The age of stardust is more dangerous than it seems. I can only save you so many times, be careful.”

Skullyana: Wakes up in a forest in Gorith, near her home. She looks around, goes to where the tribe should be. The wolf is unsure. Smell of blood and fire. She fasten her pace towards the tribe. Death now joins the air. Corpses are visible all around. Giants are also amongst the corpses. She heads for the elder’s quarrel. Everyone is dead. Animals too. In the center of the place, there’s a giant still standing, half-dead. She backs away. The giant goes towards her.

Skull realizes that it’s not real, so she saves herself.

“W-what was that? Why was she able to do that?” “That’s never happened before!” “I told you you’d be surprised”

Group. Cheryl, Kylie and Eiluvial recognize the gates of Oaken’s Crest. Group is there. Guards are bugbears. Welp, one finds Eiluvial pretty, they start fighting over her. The hobgoblin leads us to the Tiefling. In the high part of town. The place has gone to shit. The devil’s luck.

Execution coming up next. We get a place to watch it. An army walks in.

“You fucking nerds!” (everyone dies)

“That’s what you get for trying to hang my B stinger! AAAaaaAAAAaah!?”

Lighning bolt kills the warrior.

Kylie and Katar escape

Katar: Alone in a massive battlefield. Corpses of all races are around. He looks around for survivors. But soon realizes that his leg is busted. He still tries. He doesn’t find anyone he can help. He hears the sound of fighting up ahead. He walks to see. It is Kylie fighting Daronav (???sign of Texas). 5 different dragon heads of 5 different colored dragons. Kylie’s shield breaks under impact. Her eyes are not blue, but burning gold. The man in plate slams down on Kylie and kills her on the spot.

Katar looks in horror and decides to look for a spear or something to get his attention. As he looks around, he notices that he is walking towards an old man in white wizard robes. Daronav walks towards Fizzband. Fizzband looks at him sadly. Katar finds a spear. “What did I do to loose you?” (F) And Daronav doesn’t reply and kills Fizzband. As the impact hits, light explodes. Daronav is sumbling backwards. Kurogatos

Katar has a perfect shot, but it’d be blindsight.

“OI! Damn bastard what did you DO!?” he says as he slams the spear in the ground. “I did what needed to be done!” Daronav has a hardtime seeing him apparently. “Since it seems like we are the finalists of this war, let’s finish this, one on one.” Daronav smirks. “kgnrtkhlr against you with 1 leg and 1 hand.” “We have to make that fair!” Daronav smirks and walks towards him.

Katar aims to grapple Daronav. Katar gets slashed by Daronav, but knows it’s not real, so he doesn’t feel it. The illusion stops. The hourglass man claps his hands and everything melts.

“You see? He did not forsake his vows. He did what he could and even more!” “And then he died”

Fade

Back to the meeting godly place. Gods are arguing about the existence of dragons and what brought them up there. They ask why the chaos is there and destroying the mortals. “Something must be done!” Kirijolith “I agree, we must protect these mortals! But more so, the cities we have built to protect them are cages! I suggest that we take a more direct way of action!” “That wouldn’t be balance. We must let them take their own path. That’s why they have free will.” “Well dying the second you leave cities is not really free will is it?” “THEN WE ARM THEM! We let them choose how to guard themselves and defend themselves.” Kiri agrees. G raises a hand and everyone pauses. Paladine and Texas nod. Zivilin opens his eyes and we see the void. He hushes for a second as he looks into the future. He looks directly to our hiding place. Smiles. Looks back to G, closes his eyes and nods. G “Very well, who wishes to arm the mortals?” 6 step forwards. Reorks being the most qualified. “I’ll make these weapons viable of creation itself.” Hourglass whispers, “Stay still, the gods will file out, but we have more to see here.”

G asks Zivilin “Old friend, you hesitated. What is it?” Pause “Why did you create humanity?” “To keep the balance.” “Yes, but the elfes and orgres can keep the balance.” “Because elves and ogres lack free will.” “G why did you not wish to create these weapons?” “Because they have power for good and evil.” “Yeah, so they must have the potential for both.” “Very well, I shall do as you say”

The scene melts.

Cherryl: Somewhere over a desert on a flying carpet. She’s with Najeeb. He has his back to her. He’s quiet, as always. “Are we there yet?” “No” “Where are we going already?”. *sings* “Where are we going?” She irritates him. She asks for 20 minutes. Najeeb snaps “We are going back to the age of stars. Where the weapons are - available.” “Okay” * continues* Najeeb gets frustrated and starts frosting, then all is gone. They still fly for quite a while. As the sun starts to set, they see ruins half buried in sand. “How did you know these would be here?” “I guess it’s my intuition.” She eventually says that it’s bullshit and that she saw it on a treasure map. If it wasn’t going to be good, it would be a good prank. He mutters about not understanding this BS. As they get down, they see massive structures. One angel on one side and a devil on the other side of the door. They are both holding up the gate. Najeeb looks at Cherryl “After you” She goes in!

It’s pitchblack, but Najeeb turns on a light. “Echo—o—o ” Cherryl plays a song as they go down. They get in this gigantic lobby. It’s a massive reception. Piles of sand have entered the building through the ages. They both inspect the walls. Cherryl doesn’t recognize jack. He mutters about useless halflings. He keeps going down “How far down would you say that we have to go?” “I dunno.”

As they go around, they find a map. It’s like a modern version of the weapons, but in common. They keep going down. They eventually stumble upon a room filled with weapons.

They walk in a room where a single person is sat down. It holds a hammer. It doesn’t notice. “Hey!” The aasimar doesn’t react. Najeeb “Is.. that it?” “I dunno!” Cherryl pokes the guy. The entire room is suddenly filled up with a million shades. She lets go of the guy immediately, she’s shaken. She steps back “Najeeb, what’s going on?’ “I’m not sure” The hammer is magic and it seems like the guy has only been here recently.

She pokes him with mage hand. He jerks away. He stares wild eyed at the duo. Najeeb gets ready to fight. The aasimar shouts “NO YOU CAN’T HAVE IT, IT’S MINE!” He swings the hammer and misses. Najeeb attacks, he sends a spray of colors. The aasimar is dazzled.

Cherryl intimidates the guy and it sets him on fire. Najeeb “Fight or flight?” “Well, we have no reason to be here, so let’s leave.” They book it. On the way back, Cherryl notices that the way back is not the way in. They get in a room filled with dragon skulls. “Najeeb, is this what you were looking for?” “I’m not sure… Do you believe we’re save?” “I don’t know, let me check” Cherryl finds a way to climb and get to the skylight. As she looks for footholds, one rock moves and the wall collapses leading to a small room with a small table. Cherryl inspects the room, there is a map with names of unknown kingdoms. Edhest is gone. Qualinesti is not there. Koldenar is there. There are 6 marks at various points in the world. 1 bokkir waste (she’s there). 1 silvanesti. 1 hiaphthop.1 south thorag. 1 legoalin. 1 fey wilds. “What are those?” she asks Najeeb. “That’s where we are. (silvanesti) I don’t recognize that place I think it’s --. (thorag) No one lives there but fishermen and dinosaurs. (hiaph) I believe that’s cathedral. (fey) No one knows where that is and what is there”

Cherryl makes her way outside. As she walks out of the hole in the ground. The hour glass guy is waiting for her. “I hope you remember that, ‘cause you’re not taking it out of here.” It melts.

“They know where the temples are now, it’s only a matter of time, dear sister.” “And I --- get there.”

Everyone gets kicked out of the tree.

G is not happy with hourglass.

Raistlin, master of past and present

The group starts talking a bit before leaving. They are not really sure as to what to expect. Katar decides to take a look at Kylie's eye as a marker of the time he has left before the final fight against Daronav. Eiluvial tries to interject, but is unable to speak common.